Look, I thought it was a lemonade stand the little girl on my street was operating. I was driving down my street on the way home recently when I saw the redheaded little girl — must have been no older than 10 — sitting at a stand outside her yard.

I'm a sucker for a kid with a lemonade stand — though, to be honest, I prefer limeade. I'm a sucker for any kid trying to make a buck or two to buy ZotZ, Skittles, Laffy Taffy and all the good stuff.

She had the slime in baggies. Mud and some stuff she added to it. I'm still a bit confused by it all. But I had stopped my truck already. And she was cute as the proverbial button and just trying to pass time and make a little candy money.

So what could I do? I gave the future business woman — or pyramid scheme operator — $2, told her to keep the slime and just give mine to someone who couldn't afford their own. You know, pay the slime forward.

The girl's a smartie though. I mean, what a racket. The slime racket. But sometimes kids need a few coins in their pockets so they don't have to beg from Mom and Dad to get an Icee. (And let's not start on how hard it is to find a true Icee around these parts. My local — and the little red-headed girl's — closest convenience store traded in their Icee machine for a second-rung iced slush drink machine a few years back.)

But it got me thinking about how I got a little spending money as a kid. The main way was collecting glass soda bottles that you could turn in for a few pennies or a nickel. Fewer places pay to recycle glass these days, but it can still be done. And of course, there's the lawn mowing, leaf raking and babysitting gigs for the older kids.

But there have to be good child-worthy rackets yet to be exploited to prey on suckers like me. The little redhead lives only a few houses from the house I grew up in, and I wish we were kids together because we could have made some money with these ventures. Kids, if you need a little money and don't want to go the slime route, I suggest these rackets:

Front yard talent show: Get your friends together and maybe put on a little dance routine for donations. You know, the dab, the Charleston, the tweet or twerk or whatever you wacky kids do. Make sure you have a "Talent Show" sign though, otherwise passersby will just think you're giving away talent. (And do you kids still dance by spinning on your heads? You kids are dope! See, I'm up on all the hep-cat lingo, Daddy-O.)

Front yard art show: Some people don't have kids or their kids are grown and would love to have magnet-worthy original art pieces — like crayon drawings of spaceships, cats and unicorns — to go on the refrigerator door.

Cat washing: Stick out a big sign saying you'll wash cats for donations. Don't worry, no one is going to bring a cat for you to wash. They're too unpredictable and grownups get worried about things like — and this is a fifth-grade spelling list word — liability. But a few grownups with hearts — "suckers" — will admire your gumption and work ethic and give you a little money.

Paranormal street fair: Predict adults' futures with those awesome paper fortunetellers. If you want to really get back at adults for all the adult stuff they do, look real serious and say, "I don't know what this means, because I'm just a kid, but I keep seeing the word 'incontinence' in your future. I hope that's a good thing! Have a great day!"

Vintage clothing sale: Old people in their 30s and 40s love vintage stuff. (If you're only in second grade, vintage means old and stupid.) Your parents have all sorts of old clothes for you to sell. Plus, you can clean their closet for them and they'll be doubly surprised. If your mom has a pretty white dress in a closet somewhere, that is probably worth at least two Big Gulps, a big box of Nerds and enough Runts to keep you in candy that looks like fruit — it's healthy! — until fall.

Math Fair: Go door-to-door — with an adult guardian — and try to get monetary pledges for how high you can count. Maybe a dime a number? Charge triple for each digit of pi you can recite. You can also turn this into a Vocabulary Fair by getting monetary pledges for every word you know. At a dime a word, heck, I could probably make $5 myself doing this. And yes, LOL, BRB, 143 and LMBO count as word for this purpose. Just like we oldsters learned the "new math,’" you kids are proficient in the "new vocabulary."

Guess your age/weight: This might not be the best money-maker, since anyone over 20 looks like 60 to anyone under 12. If you're not getting any takers, threaten to guess their age and weight — lots of adults hate that — and shout it through the neighborhood unless they pay up. And then look up the word "extortion." It might be on next year's spelling list.

Air Orchestra: Lots of grownups don't like the idea that so many music programs have been cut in school systems nationwide. Put up a sign that advertises an "Air Orchestra" and get your friends together to play air guitar, air drums, air bass, air keyboards and complain about lack of funding for real instruments. I know real musical instruments are for old people and dumb, but you probably won't make as much money playing air DJ. Even real DJs don't look like they're doing anything, so basically you'd just be standing there literally twiddling your thumbs.

How long can I hold my breathe?: Get pledges for every second you can hold your breath. Again, have a grownup nearby.